The Complete and Utter (Sorta) History of British Comedy
The 1970's: From Dead Parrots to Squashed Hedgehogs
British comedy entered the 1970s with some new sheriffs in town. They weren't technically new on the scene - they had all been around for almost a decade and separately (or in pairs) worked on much of what mattered comedically during the 60s. Yet when they joined forces there was a creative combustion that resulted in something...well...something completely different.
It may have been something different, but it wasn't exactly new. Monty Python's Flying Circus, which actually premiered in late 1969, took its cue from the brilliant Spike Milligan, whose series of programs under the moniker Q revolutionized British comedy with its departure from the typical sketch comedy format. Skits no longer needed to end on a punchline - in fact, they could be abandoned in mid-stream if necessary or simply flow without any rhyme or reason into the next scene.
Monty Python
|
The Pythons took this concept and used it to produce 45 episodes of inventive, irreverent, flat-out silly television that is still worshipped thirty years later.
The secret was in the way they brought together individual strengths to form a unified whole. They fashioned a perfect blend of verbal gymnastics and stunning visual buffoonery, thanks to Terry Gilliam's mind-numbingly bizarre animations. Even the costume designers contributed a great deal, changing the men into suburban housewives, Scotsmen, Italian gangsters, and yes, even a tennis playing blancmange.
The four seasons of Python varied widely in quality. Some of the skits are almost painful to watch and once John Cleese got bored and left after the third season the quality deteriorated and the gang schlepped through one final season before they knew it was time to call it quits.
The Pythons could definitely stumble, but when they were good they were really good. I could spend the rest of this article spouting catchphrases and reliving the classic moments, but what I suggest you do before resuming this article is break out your videos or DVDs right now and watch a few selected moments. Take a restroom break, too - I have a lot more to tell you.
The Pythons didn't end after they filmed the final television series in 1974. In fact, they became something of an industry. They toured, released records, and, thanks to the wonderful foresight of PBS station KERA in Dallas (the first station to show them here), became known in America.
Cleese, who left after the third season of the television show, returned to the Python fold when they toured and also joined them for the move to the big screen. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) was their first hit and they stirred up lots of controversy when they released Life of Brian in 1979. Brian was the subject of protest even before it was released, thanks mostly to a false belief that it was an attack on religion.
John Cleese in Monty Python
and the Holy Grail |
The Pythons have often been referred to as the comedic equivalent of The Beatles, and that's a fair assessment. They were the ones who broke the ground for British comedy in the States and on a personal level, I'll say that turning on the television one Sunday night and quite by accident seeing Cleese doing his famous silly walk is what sparked my own passion for British comedy.
The comparison to the Beatles is also appropriate because not much of what they have accomplished individually can match the brilliance of what they created together.
John Cleese has arguably fared the best. He followed up his stint with the most influential sketch comedy show ever by creating the program that is often regarded as the greatest sitcom ever.
Fawlty Towers first aired in 1975 and was collaboration between Cleese and his then-wife Connie Booth. As is well known, the inspiration for Fawlty Towers was a real-life hotelier that the Pythons encountered while on tour. Cleese used him to create a character in an episode he wrote of a sitcom called Doctor At Large and then expanded the character into the ill tempered, snobbish monster Basil Fawlty - not exactly the type of meet and greet smiler who should run a hotel, but there you go.
John Cleese, Connie Booth,
Andrew Sachs |
Fawlty Towers is not only Cleese's tour-de-force, but he is matched by the sheer power of Prunella Scales as Basil's wife Sybil and Andrew Sachs's memorable portrait of Manuel. Interestingly enough, when the series was entered for a prize in the prestigious Montreux (Switzerland) Television Film Festival, it didn't win partially because the Swiss judge found the character of Manuel offensive. "Funny foreigners may be a joke to the English, but not to us," he proclaimed. "We are your funny foreigners. Manuel is a character in dubious taste." Oh well, to each his own, but they ended up giving Cleese an award anyway for his special Norway: Home of Giants.
Fawlty Towers only lasted two seasons, probably because Cleese is easily bored and also because both he and Booth were intent on keeping the quality of the absolute highest caliber. The process had to be draining on them - they would spend weeks writing each episode due to the extraordinary care they took with the plotting and the language.
In fact, there was such concern about maintaining the high quality that Fawlty Towers almost ended after the first season. There was a four-year gap before Cleese and Booth were convinced that they could attempt a second season, but the wait was worth it. The series ended on the highest of notes and Cleese was never persuaded to do another. He would not risk seeing it become inferior or overstaying its welcome.
Meanwhile, Eric Idle created his own classic when he took the story of The Beatles and came up with a "mockumentary" called All You Need is Cash.
The idea for this grew out of Idle's first post-Python project, a show called Rutland Weekend Television. The program revolved around a very small television station and one of the guests on the Christmas special was George Harrison.
The Rutles
|
Idle's friendship with the ex-Beatle (whose money got Life of Brian made when the original distributor backed out) inspired him to create a spoof film that was shown when he hosted Saturday Night Live. It was a short history of that famous rock group The Rutles, the "pre-fab four" whose legend would "last a lunchtime."
SNL producer Lorne Michael was impressed and asked Idle to make a full-length special detailing the career of Dirk, Barry, Stig and Nasty, a.k.a. The Rutles. All You Need is Cash was shown on NBC in March of 1978, but it was one of the lowest rated programs that week.
Despite poor viewer support, All You Need is Cash remains a classic of the genre. The truth is it's probably just too clever for its own good. Idle and co-director Gary Weis provided beautifully detailed parodies of Beatles films such as A Hard Day's Night and they were helped immeasurably by Neil Innes, whose faux Beatle tunes provided an inspired soundtrack.
Whereas Idle was used to working on his own, Terry Jones and Michael Palin had normally written together when they were with the Pythons. After the troupe's demise, Jones and Palin continued the partnership and spent the rest of the 70s collaborating on a series of nine half-hour vignettes that went out under the title of Ripping Yarns.
These were based on the type of adventure tales popular in Britain during the early 1900s. The same strength that Jones and Palin brought to the Pythons - comedy that was more visual and atmospheric - was brought to this series. To keep their vision intact, they insisted that these be filmed instead of taped, and the added expense meant that only nine of them were made.
Palin also took the time to star in Jabberwocky, directed by Terry Gilliam and released in 1977. The film was visually stunning and imaginative, as could be expected from Gilliam, but it was perhaps too gory and dark for mainstream audiences and did disappointing business at the box office.
There were also smaller projects that kept the Pythons occupied and the 70s were a creatively fertile time for all of them.
The Goodies
|
Yet the Pythons were not the only ones who excelled at being silly. Cleese and Chapman's mates from the Cambridge Footlights Club - Tim-Brooke Taylor and Bill Oddie - joined forces with Graeme Garden to create The Goodies.
The Goodies was sold to the BBC when the trio went to Michael Mills, then head of BBC television comedy, and told him that they wanted to a show about an "agency of three blokes, who do anything, any time."
Of course, since the title is The Goodies, the things they do are for good. The three men kept their own name and facets of their personality for their television characters. Graeme is something of a nutty scientist, Tim is highly patriotic but a bit cowardly and Bill is a nature loving, bird watching hippy who writes goofy tunes.
The Goodies was the equivalent of a cartoon with real-life actors - very silly slapstick with a break for spoof advertisements. Sometimes they would be off to save the world from the likes of villains like that ferocious feline Kitten Kong, other times they sailed off to an undiscovered island, and they even took a break to do a marvelous spoof of John Travolta musicals.
The Goodies was a staple on British television from 1970 until 1982 and the series spawned several successful spin-offs such as books and even hit singles, one of which encouraged listeners to do a new dance called The Funky Gibbon.
To be continued in September 2007.
The Insider, December 2001
Back To Top ‹ Previous Article | Next Article ›
